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April 30, 2011

I was never the biggest fan of Spring. To me, it's an intermission. While the weather begins to perk up, it is neither hot nor cold. Neither entirely sunny nor permanently gray. It's neither here nor there. I'm normally a summer girl.

But it's beautiful. The dogwood trees come alive with pale pink and soft white; the grass becomes lightly speckled with small globes of bright yellow; the air is perfumed with the scents of fresh cut grass and newly evaporated rain.

When I look around me, I see smiles that I haven't seen in months. More importantly, I feel myself smiling. But it isn't a normal smile - it's a warm, delicate smile that envelopes every part of myself. I walk with a kick in my step, usually to the beat of whichever song is playing on my Edward Sharpe Pandora station; my hips slightly sway and my hair flows with every wind burst.

The point I'm trying to make, is that we should appreciate the little things. A shy ray of sunshine peeking ever so slightly from behind a gloomy cloud; truly enjoying a fresh, cold glass of lemonade like it'll be your last; relaxing on dewy grass all afternoon thinking of lines for poems and fabulous things to say to strangers or friends.

This is also part of self love. If we can appreciate, and love, the wonderful things around us that give the world life, then we can begin to love and appreciate ourselves, too.

Take a minute. Or five. Or an hour. Look around you, close your eyes and inhale, or listen to the conversations of birds, and realize that the world, in all of its ups and downs, is beautiful and alive.